Title: Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them: The Original ScreenplayAuthor: J.K. RowlingRating: ★★★★★

J.K. Rowling’s screenwriting debut is captured in this exciting hardcover edition of the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them screenplay.

When Magizoologist Newt Scamander arrives in New York, he intends his stay to be just a brief stopover. However, when his magical case is misplaced and some of Newt’s fantastic beasts escape, it spells trouble for everyone…

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them marks the screenwriting debut of J.K. Rowling, author of the beloved and internationally bestselling Harry Potter books. Featuring a cast of remarkable characters, this is epic, adventure-packed storytelling at its very best.

Whether an existing fan or new to the wizarding world, this is a perfect addition to any reader’s bookshelf.

J.K. Rowling is known for having some great quotes, and that didn’t just end in Harry Potter. Continuing into Fantastic Beasts, there is so much wisdom present in some very simple lines. However, these are very deep.

QUEENIE
Are all No-Majs like you?

JACOB(trying to be serious, almost seductive)No, I’m the only one like me.

The below quote is something that I definitely need to work on. It rings so true with today’s society of everyone racing from one place to the next and worrying how we are going to be able to accomplish everything we set for ourselves. Sometimes we need to focus on just living in the moment. If we keep ourselves so busy that we forget to breathe, we lose out on potentially great moments. We forget to just live.

My philosophy is that worrying means you suffer twice.

Probably everyone’s favorite character (myself included) is the niffler. It is absolutely adorable and brings a little comedic relief to the screenplay.

I really enjoyed this novel. And after the second time reading it, you start to see little things that were missed prior. This was a great setup for the next screenplay, and I think I actually enjoyed it more than The Crimes of Grindelwald. Poor Credence.

Two girls use forbidden magic to fly and fight–for their country and for themselves–in this riveting debut that’s part Shadow and Bone, part Code Name Verity.

Seventeen-year-old Revna is a factory worker, manufacturing war machines for the Union of the North. When she’s caught using illegal magic, she fears being branded a traitor and imprisoned. Meanwhile, on the front lines, Linné defied her father, a Union general, and disguised herself as a boy to join the army. They’re both offered a reprieve from punishment if they use their magic in a special women’s military flight unit and undertake terrifying, deadly missions under cover of darkness. Revna and Linné can hardly stand to be in the same cockpit, but if they can’t fly together, and if they can’t find a way to fly well, the enemy’s superior firepower will destroy them–if they don’t destroy each other first.

We Rule the Night is a powerful story about sacrifice, complicated friendships, and survival despite impossible odds.

1984 is your typical dystopian novel. Right away, I thought of WWII, concentration camps, and censorship. Hitler has nothing on these guys! Every little thing is monitored. You can’t even say what you truly think in front of your children without fear of them turning you into the Thought Police! Individualism is completely taken away.

We see the perspective of this new unending war from our protagonist, Winston Smith, who lives in Oceania (the Americas, the British Isles, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, Polynesia, and Southern Africa below the River Congo). However, Eurasia (Portugal to the Bering Strait) and Eastasia (China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea) are also in constant war with Oceania. There are multiple times throughout the novel where Oceania is allied with Eastasia and then quickly switches over to Eurasia, however, the alliances and wars are constant, so the previous relationships never existed, or so the authorities want you to think! These constant wars are needed to keep the societies in check…hence the war is peace.

The only way to be truly free in 1984 is by completely giving oneself over to the Party. Not letting those thoughts come to mind except those which the Party accepts…pretty much losing your individualism. The freedom received from the Party is similarly enslaving yourself to their views.

As long as no one revolts against the high class, things are doomed to stay the same. The low are stuck as they are. As soon as the high is overthrown by both the middle and low (who hold the majority in numbers), a new middle and high class will emerge and history will repeat itself. Without banning together to overthrow the oppressors, things are bound to stay as they are…ignorance is strength for those in power.

Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.

This quote is a prime example of Winston’s relationship with Julia. Both sharing the same views on authority, they bond. The relationship starts to bloom and becomes physical, but we see Winston is yearning for more on thoughts of the Party, which Julia seems to have no interest in. She is one of those people who is all talk and no action.

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

We see exactly this with Winston’s occupation at the Ministry of Truth. He is forced to literally rewrite history to depict what is currently happening in the world today. I really don’t understand how the people fall for this. Considering I am the worst liar, the Thought Police would be all over me and I’d be a goner.

The best books…are those that tell you what you know already.

Yes! I totally agree. I love when the ending was right in front of your fingertips the whole time (literally!).

When news comes that he’s fallen in battle at the King’s side in the Holy Land, Maid Marian doesn’t know how she’ll go on. Betrothed to Robin, she was free to be herself, to flout the stifling rules of traditional society and share an equal voice with her beloved when it came to caring for the people of her land.

Now Marian is alone, with no voice of her own. The people of Locksley, persecuted by the Sheriff of Nottingham, are doomed to live in poverty or else face death by hanging. The dreadful Guy of Gisborne, the Sherriff’s right hand, wishes to step into Robin’s shoes as Lord of Locksley, and Marian’s fiancé. Society demands that she accept her fate, and watch helplessly as her people starve.

When Marian dons Robin’s green cloak, and takes up his sword and bow, she never intended that anyone should mistake her for Robin, returned from the Holy Land as a vigilante. She never intended that the masked, cloaked figure she created should stand as a beacon of hope and justice to peasant and noble alike. She never intended to become a legend.

But all of Nottingham is crying out for a savior. So Marian must choose to make her own fate and become her own hero…